Thursday, October 2, 2014

For the first time in nearly 20 years, total spending on child welfare in the U.S. has declined. Our new report summarizes key findings from a national survey of states' child welfare expenditures. Child welfare agencies use federal, state, and local funds to provide services to prevent abuse and neglect, preserve families, protect children, and place children outside of their homes when necessary. Track the money that funds this important work.

Increasingly, schools are implementing initiatives meant to improve students' social, emotional, and academic outlook. But how can they know whether these programs work? Evaluation is critical, but not all evaluations are useful. In our latest blog post, Deborah Temkin offers five points to consider when evaluating school-based initiatives.

Health during adolescence can impact later educational, social, and economic success. This brief describes the family, neighborhood, and personal characteristics of teens who are in poor health, compared with those of healthier teens. Teens in fair or poor health are more likely to be disengaged from school, and more likely to have parents who are also in fair or poor health.

The number of dual language learners in early care and education programs is increasing. This review of research literature, co-authored by Child Trends' Tamara Halle, examines whether measures of the quality of early care and education settings reflect the needs of the diverse groups of children in these settings.

Despite extensive financial investment in scaling evidence-based programs and practices, scaled programs can produce poor outcomes. How can we replicate effective programs and practices under real-world conditions? That's the question Dr. Dean Fixsen of the National Implementation Research Network will address in this PerformWell webinar. Child Trends is a PerformWell partner.

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

With your help, we could see the Parental Rights Amendment (PRA) adopted before the next presidential election.

No, this isn’t a guarantee. It is too soon for that. There are still
too many variables, too many pieces that need to fall into place.

But it is a very real possibility.

The first thing that has to happen, though, is the election this
November of enough congressmen and senators who will support the
parental rights effort.

The new House and Senate will convene in January, 2015. With enough
support for the PRA going in, we can make a concerted effort to secure
its passage in both houses within the year. Then, when state
legislatures convene in 2016, its ratification can be at the top of
their to-do list. (Those with year-round legislatures won’t even have to
wait that long!)

Imagine it. With your help, we can see the PRA adopted before we even vote on President Obama’s successor in 2016!

But it all starts with this November’s elections. And that’s where our pledge comes in.

ParentalRights.org does not endorse a particular party or candidate.
However, we are working to post for your information a list of
candidates who support the PRA, based on the pledges we have received or
an incumbent’s cosponsorship of the PRA in their chamber of Congress.
Though the list is still incomplete, we are growing it at 4pra.us/pledge14.

Check the list to see who has declared their support in your House and Senate races. Check back as Election Day approaches and as hopefully more pledges are received.

If pledges haven’t been sent to the candidates in your district yet and you would like to help, you can see the step-by-step instructions here. (We are sending those pledges out slowly, but volunteers really speed up the process!)

Wouldn’t it be nice to know that no matter who is sworn in as
president in 2017, they will swear “to preserve, protect, and defend
[a] Constitution” that includes your parental rights?

With your help through the coming months, there is a good chance that we can make that dream a reality.

Sincerely,

Michael Ramey
Director of Communications & Research

P.S. – If you can support the dream with just a $5 monthly donation (or $50 annual) this month you will receive access to our October Elite Membership packet on “Teaching Active and Adventurous Children,” featuring Institute for Excellence in Writing’s Andrew Pudewa. Andrew’s insights can help you connect with your adventurous child, however he or she is schooled.

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Teen Isaiah Rider is back in Kansas City with family members after months in Chicago foster care. But the drama is not over.

Removed from his mother’s custody for “medical neglect,” Isaiah remains a ward of the state of Illinois.

“He was suffering,” Michelle recently told the Kansas City Star. “They could not control his pain, so we asked for a transfer to another hospital. We were asking for them to get appropriate help, and they were failing to do that.”

Instead, Lurie’s Children’s Hospital in Chicago called in Illinois’
child protection services, who removed Isaiah from his mother’s custody
and placed him in foster care.

Isaiah has neurofibromitosis, a genetic condition that causes often
painful tumors to grow on the nerves throughout his body. He has been
dealing with medical problems related to his condition since he was 6.

After his most recent surgery, he had continual and on-going pain,
which led to Michelle’s fateful decision. And that is when Lurie’s
called on the state of Illinois to intervene.

Illinois took custody of Isaiah and placed him in foster care until
last week, when he was returned to Kansas City, into the custody of his
grandparents.

“I am very thankful that he’s home,” his grandmother Judy told the Kansas City Star. “However, the restrictions that they’ve been able to provide through Cook County Court limit (my daughter’s) visitation.” She is not allowed to see her son unless one of her own parents is present.

Michelle is on trial in Chicago to try to regain custody of her son.
The case started on Friday (Sept. 19), and could stretch on for months.
“It’s very frustrating,” Michelle said of the situation. “He’s 17 years old. This needs to stop.”

Under the Uniform Child-Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act in Illinois (75- ILCS 36),
it would appear that the Illinois courts should not have jurisdiction
in the Rider case. Illinois is not Isaiah’s home, and he has no
“significant connection with th[e] State other than mere physical
presence.” The act has been adopted by the District of Columbia and
every State except Massachusetts, and according to this reading of it, a
Missouri court would rightly exercise jurisdiction over the case of
Isaiah’s custody.

The law, however, is very complex. Illinois is already exercising
jurisdiction, and it is not the purpose of this article to refute the
court’s decision to do so.

But even if the UCCJEA were applied, there is no guarantee Michelle would win. Once
a judge decides to ignore the fundamental right of parents to make
medical decisions for their child, there is no telling what standard the
judge will be looking for before he will entrust that parent with her
own child again.

This is one great reason the Parental Rights Amendment looks to
preserve those rights in the first place. Fit and loving parents should
not have to defend their decisions to a judge when they have not been
abusive or negligent. )

And make no mistake. The accusation of “neglect” against Michelle arose because doctors disagreed with her decision, not because of any action she had taken before.

2. Join ParentalRights.org with your $5 monthly donation (or save $10 by making a $50 annual gift) at ParentalRights.org/member.
Your membership enables us to promote state statutes to fix
over-reaches like the one in the Rider case, while also funding efforts
to pass the Parental Rights Amendment – the ultimate solution to this
problem.

In addition, we will send you not only the September Elite Membership packet on meal planning, but also the special introductory packet on Parental Rights in the Medical Setting. Perhaps its content can help you keep Isaiah’s nightmare from ever playing out in your family.

3. Help us find where your candidates stand on parental rights
as we head toward Election Day. With enough help, this can be a quick
and easy task that allows us to notify thousands of voters. See details
in last week’s newsletter, available here.

With your help, we can make situations like Isaiah and Michelle Rider’s a thing of the past. But it will take all of us to preserve the “enduring American tradition” of parental rights.

Friday, September 12, 2014

I write to share with you an exciting opportunity to advance the
cause of parental rights in a new and important way. And I need your
help to make it happen.

Our goal remains focused. We want to place permanent protections for
parental rights into the Constitution of the United States. We have also
advanced selective interim goals that are vitally important, including
the defeat of United Nations treaties that would harm parental
liberties.

Our efforts thus far have been focused on getting people who support
parental rights to call their elected officials to enact legislation.

It has become apparent that we need to devote additional efforts to informing the American public about our issue. If more parents know the true state of parental rights in our law and judicial practice, then more parents will join in our efforts to protect parental liberty.

Our efforts will be successful only when enough parents wake up, stand up, and speak up.

Accordingly, we have decided to launch a project to
dramatically expand both our research and public communications on
parental rights.

ParentalRights.org is a 501(c)(4) organization. That means that the
organization itself is tax exempt, but because we do a lot of lobbying,
we cannot grant tax deductions to our donors.

Education, research, and litigation, however, can legitimately be funded by organizations that are both non-profit and tax deductible.

So we are launching a sister organization: Parental Rights Foundation.
This foundation will be a 501(c)(3) organization, which means that
donations made to the Foundation are tax deductible. It will not engage
in lobbying but only in research, education, and other activities
appropriate for such organizations.

The Parental Rights Foundation will allow us to:

Produce scholarly “White Papers” on various aspects of parental rights

File “friend of the court” briefs to provide legal insight to judges in important cases such as that of the Pelletiers in Massachusetts

Conduct public campaigns through seminars, meetings, social
media, and traditional press to ensure that a far greater percentage of
parents and policymakers understand the threats that are rising daily in
our nation

Produce new articles, videos, and blogs that can be shared
through social media to help our grassroots members participate in this
new campaign of public awareness and education

While we have
been educating the public and policymakers to some degree already, our
capacity to do so is limited by lack of resources.

Both organizations will need funding, because ParentalRights.org will
continue our growing legislative and lobbying efforts. But launching
the Foundation will allow a substantial part of our efforts to come
through gifts that are tax deductible.

Whenever I speak to live audiences about parental rights, the
response is strong and positive. When people learn the truth, they want
to help.

It is impossible for me to physically stand before enough audiences
to educate all the people we need. We must expand our educational
efforts in a big way.

My hope is that the Parental Rights Foundation will become the leading authority for parental rights policy in America, the go-to place for everyone from parents to educators to lawmakers.

Educating the public will lead to more widespread support. And the
support of the American public is essential for a project of this
magnitude.

Will you help me with this effort? For the first time, we can offer you a tax deduction for any gift that you are able to make to help us launch the Parental Rights Foundation.

In order to hit our launch goals – to crank up our research, get our
first articles written, and launch a new website to feature the results –
I need to raise $100,000 for the Foundation! If you can, send your best gift to help get this effort off the ground.

When people learn the truth about governmental attacks on families, they will respond. People will get it: If the government attacks one good family, they can attack my family as well.

If we want to protect our freedom, we need more informed allies. The
Parental Rights Foundation is the tool that can help us achieve that
end.

Thank you!

Sincerely,Michael Farris
President

P.S. We have a groundbreaking opportunity. The Parental Rights Foundation will be the only
national organization in the United States dedicated to promoting
parental rights policies based on time-tested principles of freedom. It could change the face of parental rights in America. Please, if there’s any way you can, help us launch the Foundation with your most generous tax deductible gift toward our $100,000 goal.

Thursday, September 4, 2014

ParentalRights.org
President Michael Farris will be providing testimony on the Parental
Rights Amendment before the Constitution Subcommittee of the House
Judiciary Committee next Tuesday, September 9, and he would like to include your story.

Have you ever had a doctor or other medical professional (dentist,
orthodontist, ophthalmologist, etc.) interfere with your parental
rights? Perhaps they prevented you from accompanying your minor child
into the treatment room for care. Perhaps they overrode your decisions
regarding what is best for your child. Perhaps they called in the state
because you sought a second opinion.

If you have had an experience of this sort, however basic or egregious, please send a brief summary to stories@parentalrights.org
as soon as possible. You don’t have to write a long letter or include a
ton of details. Just let us know what happened so that we can show
Congress just how quickly this problem is growing, and just how far it
has spread.

If you would also like to help fund our on-going efforts, you can secure a $5-monthly membership (or just $50 per year – a 16% savings) and receive two Elite Member Benefits packages – the current package on Menu Planning, and (fittingly enough) our package on Parental Rights in the Medical Setting. (If you already have a membership or don’t want one, you can make a general donation here.)

Thank you for your help as we prepare to take the issue of your parental rights to the very halls of Congress on September 9!

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

The Constitution
Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on
House Joint Resolution (HJRes.) 50, the Parental Rights Amendment (PRA),
on Tuesday, September 9. Given that Congress is currently scheduled to
be in session for only twelve work days before recessing again for the
November elections, this hearing on only the second day communicates the importance of the resolution.
The measure enjoys the support of 79 cosponsors, including Rep. Trent
Franks, the chairman of the subcommittee. Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) is
the measure’s lead sponsor.

“I’m pleased that my colleagues on the House Judiciary Committee will
consider the Parental Rights Amendment. This is an incredibly important
milestone. The Parental Rights Amendment will ensure that
child-rearing decisions are not made by faceless bureaucrats but by
parents who love their children and know them best,” Congressman Meadows said.

This will mark the second consecutive session of Congress in which
the PRA has been taken up by the subcommittee. The same subcommittee
held a hearing on HJRes. 107 in July of 2012 during the 112th Congress.

“It is encouraging to know that in the midst of so many other
important matters that Congress is dealing with, they have not lost
sight of the importance of families,” says ParentalRights.org president
Michael Farris. “Parental rights is ‘perhaps the oldest of the
fundamental liberty interests recognized by [the Supreme] Court,’ but recent erosion of this liberty demands that we act to preserve it for our posterity.”

Farris, who boasts 30-plus years of experience as a constitutional
lawyer and serves as chancellor of Patrick Henry College in Virginia,
will be one of the expert witnesses to speak at the hearing on behalf of
the Amendment. ParentalRights.org staff also plan to be in attendance.

Action Items

1. Call on your congressman to cosponsor the Parental Rights Amendment. The 79 cosponsors are listed at 4pra.us/House.
If your congressman is not on the list, please contact his or her local
office – or reach their D.C. office through the Capitol switchboard at
202-224-3121 – and ask that he or she contact Martha Van Lieshout in
Mark Meadows’ office to sign on as a cosponsor.

Feel free to use your own words, of course, but a sample message follows:

I
support the Parental Rights Amendment, which is House Joint Resolution
50. I am glad to see that HJRes. 50 is being taken up by the
Constitution subcommittee next week, and that it already has 79
cosponsors. I would like to encourage my congressman to sign on as a
cosponsor of the measure as well. The lead sponsor is Mark Meadows of
North Carolina, and the contact person in his office is Martha Van
Lieshout. I urge my congressman to take this stand to protect the right
of loving parents to make decisions for their children without undue
government interference.

2. Support our efforts with a membership to ParentalRights.org. If you are not already a member, why not join today? Your $5 monthly donation – or discounted $50 annual donation – will not only entitle you to all the great information in our monthly Elite Member Benefits packages, but will also fuel our efforts to protect parental rights.

Only with the help of donors just like you have we been able to
introduce the Parental Rights Amendment in both houses of Congress and
get it to this subcommittee hearing. Only with your generosity have we
been able to stand against the push to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to warn you about dangers like the national student database associated with Common Core, and to inform you of grievous parental rights cases like that of Justina Pelletier.

With your support, we will continue this vital cause until your parental rights are permanently secured in the Constitution.

September 9 will be an exciting day in the struggle for parental
rights, and we are grateful for the chance to share this victory with
you!

AFR News

NEWS about what's happening in the world about children, their parents, and the brutality and tyranny of Government as Parent

A service of American Family Rights

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